Slowly Taking Me
by CaffeineTed
Summary: Set in S5 of Angel. Somebodys trying to destroy all dimensions by using an innocent girl's soul. Of course Angel and Spike save her. What happens when they don't want to? What happens when they both fall in love with her? AOC SOC
1. APOCALYPSEAGAIN?

TITLE: SLOWLY TAKING ME  
  
RATING: R because of some stuff that may happen a little later on...like violence, language, some other stuff...  
  
DISTRIBUTION: Sure. Just email me first.  
  
FEEDBACK: You better fricken better!  
  
SUMMARY: S5 of Angel. Spike has become a part of the group as a VAMPIRE at Wolfram and Hart, as have the others in the fang gang. Then they find a prophecy saying that there's gonna be another apocalypse which leads them to a girl whose soul is slowly being taken away and put to use for the destruction of the universe against her will.  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the S5 plot. I am taking this from the beginning of the season on throughout my way. So screw you.  
  
ONE: APOCALYPSE...AGAIN??  
  
Angel walked in to Wesley's office to find the rest of the gang scattered about, looking through book after book, file after file, busily researching the pack of demons he'd gone out to fight.  
"How's the search going?" Angel asked.  
"Terrible." Lorne groaned. "Not a single thing on...well, anything that's even remotely related to a Dalarthen demon." He put his book on a stack and picked up another one.  
Angel glanced down at his ripped and bloody sleeve.  
"Not the most fun creatures to fight, I found out," he mumbled to himself.  
"How'd that go?" Wesley asked without looking up, "the fighting tonight."  
"Not so good. I mean, I took care of three of them, but the other ten or so got away."  
"Ten?" Gunn asked, looking up at the others. "There's ten left?"  
"Yeah." Angel said, sitting down on a stack of books only to have it topple over, sending him to the floor.  
  
"You all right, Peaches?" Spike asked with a smirk, walking in the room.  
"Spike. I thought you said you were going to go get some blood from the refrigerator." Angel groaned.  
"None left. Harm took the rest. They're gettin some more as we speak."  
"Perfect," Angel mumbled.  
"One heckuva fight, huh, Peaches? That last one really knocked you senseless." Spike said, punching the other vampire on the shoulder. The others looked up from their researching.  
"Are you okay?" Fred finally asked.  
"I'm fine. Thanks. I'm just going to go to my office. Take a few minutes of down time." Angel told the others.  
Fred stood up, concerned. "You sure you're okay? You look wiped out."  
"That's why I want some time alone, Fred. You're the genius. Thought you would have figured that out." Angel snapped, heading for the door. Fred's brown eyes widened at this sudden outburst, and there were glares from Gunn and Wesley.  
Angel ignored all of them, and went out of the room.  
  
Angel opened the double doors to his office and walked in, shutting them behind him with a slam.  
"What's the matter, boss?" A female voice asked from a dark corner of the office.  
"Eve. What do you want?" Angel asked as the young woman stepped out of the shadow and towards Angel.  
"Just wanted to see if you needed any help on those Dalarthen demons. All you really have to do is ask the rest of the office and-"  
"I don't need your help."  
Eve smiled. "I never offered my assistance. I merely offered the firm's."  
"I don't need your firm to work on everything else. My people are on that."  
Eve scoffed. "Right. Remind me again why you took this position if you didn't want help?"  
"I took this position to do some good. Last time I tried to do that with your firm, innocent people almost died."  
"Then why are you still here?" Eve smiled cruelly.  
"Why are you still here in my office, is what I'd like to know." Angel asked threateningly.  
"Just thought you might want to put a stop to the apocalypse."  
"Again? God, does the world never learn?" Angel grumbled.  
"Do you want to know or not?" Eve asked irritably.  
"What do you know?" Angel asked the woman.  
"There's a girl, a little more key to this than your Dalarthens. A special kind of girl, with a special something about her, so I've heard. She's being used for something that will trigger the apocalypse. That's all I know. I'd get started if I were you. Not much time left. Oh, and the prophecy that states this little tidbit of information is on your desk. Have a nice night." Eve smiled and exited.  
Angel walked over to his desk and picked up the book, and opened it to where it was marked. His eyes darkened as he read the words that predicted the world's doom.  
  
~*~  
  
"Again?" Lorne asked the vampire as he was handed the prophecy.  
"Yes, again. Eve said it had to do with a girl. Someone special, her words, not mine. What do you think?" Angel asked the green man.  
"Well, normally, if it were Eve, I'd say don't believe her, buddy, but this is...authentic."  
"Meaning world go boom?" Gunn asked, perched on his desk.  
"Well, not boom exactly. From what I just translated it means world go bye bye piece by piece, using a..." Lorne squinted at the unknown word. "A k'nardth. I don't know what that is. A distribution of a k'nardth to different planes of existence, not only destroying the world, but all connected planes."  
"So, this bint. She's the cause of it?" Spike asked.  
"It doesn't say that. It doesn't even say anything about a girl. It says 'one shall fail and one shall succeed'. What we can assume is that Eve's girl is one of these girls. Probably the one who will succeed."  
"So we gotta stop her." Angel asked, pacing.  
"She's not the one doing this. These two 'ones' are being used. They're the tools. That's what I picked up with the little Mgquidnn I know, anyway." Lorne shrugged.  
"So, we need to find these tools and stop whoever's using them." Angel said.  
"Let's go, then." Spike said, hopping off the chair he'd been sitting on.  
"We don't know where to find them." Gunn said.  
"Well, maybe the sudden appearance of those Dalarthens has somethin to do with it. Let's go find those bastards." Spike said cockily. "C'mon, Peaches, ya up for it, then?"  
"I told you to stop calling me that." Angel grumbled.  
"How 'bout you, then, Gunn? You up for a little killin of the kitties?" Spike asked.  
"I have a case file to look at tonight. Can't. Angel, you should go though. Spike might be right." Gunn suggested, standing up and loosening his tie.  
"Fine. Spike, get the axes from my office. I'll get the car started." Angel said. "Thanks, Lorne."  
"Not a problem." Lorne replied and left the room along with Spike and Angel.  
  
~*~  
  
Spike slammed the last remaining Dalarthen up against the alley wall. The red, scaly, spindly looking demon made a muffled noise of pain.  
"I'm not gonna ask you again, what does this girl have to do with the apocalypse?" Spike said angrily.  
"She-she... I don't know much!"  
Slam.  
"Wanna tell me what you do know, then?" Spike threatened.  
"Can you put me down first?"  
"How's about no?" Spike reasoned.  
"Spike. Put him on the ground." Angel said from the other side of the demon. The peroxide blonde did so. The Dalarthen took a much needed breath of air from his triangular mouth.  
"That's better." He said, relaxing.  
"Tell us what you know." Angel said, eyes darkening.  
"Okay, okay. All I know is that my kind, the ones you two killed, that is, and me came here to find out how to remove what that little bitch put in our dimension that we can't seem to get rid of."  
"What's that?" Spike asked.  
"It was horrible... I know it was against her will and all that, but how could she play along with their game?"  
"Whose game? What did she do?" Angel asked.  
"She-she put some emotion there. I don't know what it was, all I know is that it changed everyone. Everyone but the Thirteen Elite, that is. Or the One Elite, I guess, now that you've done the others in."  
"Who was she? Did you ever see her?" Angel asked the Dalarthen.  
"She was a very beautiful girl, for a human, anyway. Much prettier than the other one. Stronger, too. The other one died before she could finish her task. But this one, she was so young, when she first came. She was only a little kid. Then she came again, a few weeks ago, your time, and she was older. She was in so much pain, though. Both she and her mother tried to stop it, but they couldn't. The first one, the mother, she wasn't pure enough. So they took her daughter, and used her instead. Neither of them had any idea what was going on at first. Then when the daughter came back, she knew, and she tried to have us keep her there, in our dimension. Then we tried to come back here with her, and it didn't work. So we had to follow her path."  
"So you guys are good? Not in support of the apocalypse?" Spike asked, throwing a glare back at Angel.  
"Is that what those idiots are trying to do? End of the world, using that poor thing?"  
"End of all worlds, as I know it." Angel said.  
"Oh, so she hasn't just been to ours. Glad it's not personal." The Dalarthen said with a little smile.  
"Do you know where she is?" Angel asked.  
"Sorry, we were trying to find her when you bozos got in our way and killed us."  
"Haven't killed you yet." Spike reminded the demon. Angel cut in.  
"Sorry. Look, do you have any idea where she might be?"  
"Uh, LA, what the girl said. Whatever that is."  
"Well that helps a lot." Spike grumbled.  
"It does?" The demon asked, perking up.  
"No, it doesn't." Angel replied. "Look, did she give a name, or can you give me a description as to what she looked like?"  
"Well, she was pretty. She was about this tall," the demon held his hand up to about where Angel's neck was, "and she had shiny, brown hair that was long and kind of reddish and brown eyes. She was skinny, pale, a little too pale, actually. She had spots on her face-"  
"You mean freckles?" Spike asked.  
"Yeah, that's what she called them. She did this thing with her mouth, the first time she came to visit us. It made some of us try it too, but our mouths couldn't do it. She was so full of life and...grace. That was her name. Grace. It's what she said they called her. Grace. And her mother had it, too. She called it that, also. I don't know what that is, exactly. It was a kind of aura. It was nice. It made everyone change, though. It was almost magical, how pure, and how flawed she was. Grace. That was definitely it. Grace. Such unhappy, amazing grace."  
"Is that it? Or are you gonna tell us how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like you she was?" Spike asked irritably.  
"I don't know anything else. She mentioned some people, though. Asked us if we knew where one was. And she said she had to escape others."  
"Who? Who were they?" Angel asked.  
"Uh, she was trying to escape some people called the Lives, and she was looking for a boy, she said. His name was Connor."  
  
AN: I know, it's bad. But it gets more interesting as you get into it. For all of you who've read it, I am not stopping Make 7, not at all. I am slowly working on it. And remember the great analogy of Faery: review is like a cattleprod. The more you poke me with it, the faster I am motivated to write. So review if you want more faster!  
-emily 


	2. THE LIVES

AN: Here's the new chapter, tell me what you think. Be brutal. Thank you for the *cough* two reviews. I greatly appreciate it. Yall better keep reviewing or theres gonna be a smackdown, ya hear? Peace out (dontcha love paradox people like me??) -emily  
  
TWO: THE LIVES = THE DEATHS  
  
Angel stopped. "What?" He asked softly.  
"The guy this bint was looking for's name was Connor, Peaches. God, you have hearing problems or summat?" Spike asked, annoyed at the lack of information.  
Angel shook himself. It couldn't be his son. There was no way. It would have to be some other kid in another hell dimension by the name of Connor. Dammit, there was no escape. It was his son. Who he had just given up. Then how could he have been in another dimension? It was impossible. But in other dimensions did these same rules apply? Or was this girl so special that she could carry the memory as well as he could of the boy, passing the message along to some who did not know him? Thoughts ran through Angel's head fast as the speed of light, and now he knew that he had to find this girl. Not just for her sake, not for the world's, but for his own. After all, he had made how many sacrifices for the world already? At least two.  
  
~*~  
  
Spike and Angel walked away from the corpses of what was now thirteen Dalarthen demons. Spike had killed the last when Angel had been pondering his sacrifices. Angel had responded with a glare, which prompted a shrug from Spike, and the two walked away together towards Angel's car.  
Back at Wolfram and Hart, the two souled vampires walked into Wesley's office, where Lorne, Fred and Gunn lounged.  
"Angel, you're back." Fred said, getting up off the desk where she'd been seated.  
"What bout me, Fred? I'm back too, you know." Spike said, shoving his hands into his duster's pockets.  
"Yes, that you are," Fred said, turning to Angel. "Did you find the demons?"  
"We found 'em all right. Killed all but one, got the information we needed, and of course Peroxide here killed the last one when there could have been more information in him as to where this girl was being held." Angel said.  
"'Ey! I was tryin' to help. Dalarthens kill...things." Spike replied defensively.  
"So what did you find out? What'd the demon say?" Gunn asked Angel.  
"He said that the girl put some kind of emotion or feeling there that changed things. The demons that were sent here from their dimension were trying to find her to remove it, not knowing that the same thing had probably happened in other dimensions. The demon said that she said she was from LA, which doesn't exactly help much. He said that this girl we're looking for wasn't the first to visit his dimension. He said that her mother had come also, but she wasn't pure enough for her purpose, so she was eliminated. Then this girl, her daughter, came into this, and-"  
"And she was pure and had amazed all the demons there, blah blah blah." Spike added in. Angel nodded, and went on.  
"He also described her appearance, he said her name was Grace. When he started to talk about her, something seemed to come over him. I don't know what it was exactly, some sort of enamoration. He said she was trying to escape some people called the Lives, and trying to find..." Angel trailed off.  
Could he do it? Expose his son? They would never have to know that he was his son. Just tell them, try not to bring him into it too much. It wasn't that important. Yes it was. Tell them anyway.  
"Trying to find who? Or what?" Wesley asked.  
"A guy named Connor. We don't know anything else." Angel replied softly.  
"Are you okay?" Fred asked the vampire, hand reaching out for his arm. Angel stepped back, rejecting it.  
"Fine. I'm going to get some rest, find out more about the Lives, where they could be in LA. That'll lead us to her." Angel said, heading for the door.  
"What about the boy? Connor. Should we look for some connection there?" Wesley asked.  
"No. We can't find much on a first name. If she's trying to find him then that means she isn't with him, right? Therefore we couldn't care less." Angel said finally, leaving.  
When he was gone, the remaining five looked at each other, confused as to Angel's suddenly darkening mood.  
"So, what's with Sir Brood-a-lot?" Spike asked.  
  
~*~  
  
Angel entered his office, getting into his private elevator and taking the ride up to his apartment. He stepped out, and pulled off his leather jacket, tossing it over an armchair. He walked straight to his bar. Angel looked at his selection of hard liquor, debating his choice. He decided to cast off the hard stuff, he wasn't the best guy to get drunk. He opened up his refrigerator and pulled out a beer. Using a bottlecap opener, he opened his beer and took a long swig. He brought the beer over to his sofa, and sat down, frustrated. He took another drink. And another.  
Two more beers and one hour later, Angel walked into his bedroom, pulling off his long sleeve black shirt and tossing it in a corner. He took off his pants, and climbed into his bed in his boxers. It was already dark, and his lights were all off, but despite the absence of light, it took him another hour to get to sleep.  
Only two hours later, Angel was awoken by the sudden slamming of Spike's boot into the side of his bed.  
"Mornin' sunshine. We got the address."  
"Where is it?" Angel asked, sitting up quickly.  
"Other side 'o town. We need to get ready and fill you in on all the dirt we got on these Lives guys and get over there tonight, righ' before sunrise. That's when this... well, just hurry up an'-" Angel moved to get out of bed. "No, stay there till I get out, Peaches. I don't need to be scarred or anythin'." Spike smirked and left the room, slamming Angel's door behind him.  
  
"Morning, boss!" Harmony chirped.  
"Not now, Harmony." Angel replied.  
The blonde vampire picked up a bright blue coffee mug with a smiley face on it, holding it out to him. "I have your blood. Just the way you like it." She smiled.  
Angel took the blood and headed for Gunn's office, where Spike stood by the door, waving for him to come in.  
"You're welcome!" Harmony called over him. Muttering to herself, she sat back down at her desk. "Too busy brooding to notice me... almost as bad as my Blondie Bear with his stupid Slayer obsession..."  
"Fill me in, guys." Angel greeted, taking a sip of his blood.  
Lorne pulled out a sheet of notes. "Well, good morning to you too." He scoffed. "These guys, the Lives. They're a cult looking to destroy all dimensions possible for them to reach through a chosen one, probably our girl Grace."  
"Cult of demons or vampires or humans, Lorne? I need specifics." Angel said sharply.  
"Somebody got up in a bad mood." Spike sneered.  
"Somebody was woken up by someone about to be staked if they don't shut up." Angel replied. "Keep talking." He urged.  
"Well, we don't exactly... well, their leader, he's a demon, but the followers are... human. The text we found on them isn't too clear." Lorne said wistfully.  
"But, they leave traces behind with each generation." Gunn added, handing Angel a sheet of paper.  
"What kind of traces," Angel asked.  
"A mark is burned into their leader's arm. There have been three hundred and forty one marks, this is the three hundred and forty second generation. The one predestined to succeed." Fred said, handing Angel another sheet of paper with a photocopied prophecy. Angel glanced over it.  
"This is my prophecy. That Eve gave me." Angel said.  
"There's a quickie version, with hilighted parts and translations in the margins." Lorne said, pointing to said translations.  
"Good work, guys." Angel said, glancing down at the prophecy.  
"Anyway, the Lives want this end of the world to come to pass because of the fact that they are brainwashed, or should I say bodywashed, when they get a certain tattoo. This is the tattoo. The mark is the mark of the generation they are to be in, and is the same mark that the leader gets burned into his arm when said generation ends." Fred said, showing Angel a picture in a textbook of the mark of the three hundred and forty second generation.  
"And they're brainwashed because the leader wants this total destruction to go down." Angel finished.  
"Exactly. But in order for this cult to work, they need to find a chosen one, like Lorne said before. So in each generation there's been a chosen one-" Gunn started.  
"Where have I heard that before?" Spike said.  
"If you're not going to help, then get out." Angel said sharply. "Now, what about this chosen one?"  
"Well, there have been various problems with these girls. Some have been insane before coming into possession of the Lives, then some went insane while in possession of the Lives, others were impure-"  
"Like Grace's mother." Angel finished.  
"Yeah. Pure equals pure of essence, pure of soul, pure of body, blah blah. Anyway, there's always been something wrong with the chosen ones, impurity of some sort. One even got away, and a few of them have been killed by the, er, harsh tactics of the Lives." Wesley said.  
"Harsh tactics? What are they doing, exactly?" Angel asked.  
"I'll tell you in a minute." Wesley said. "Now, these girls are tortured, constantly. But only the torture that comes to mind when you hear the word is used upon them when they try to go against the leader's or followers' orders. But they go through torture each night, at sunset when they slip into a state of... well, from what we decoded, they get sucked into another dimension. Not always the same one. But each night they visit a hell dimension. Our time, they're only gone for maybe five minutes. Time in the hell dimension, they're there for longer. And it is very, very painful." Gunn said.  
"What happens while they're there? I mean, why are they sent there? And how? Portals?"  
"Not portals. Only their soul goes to the dimensions, their bodies stay, having strange spasms because only a part of their soul is still rooted in their natural dimension, which is Earth. In the past there have been times where their entire soul goes, making them impure, making the generation fail, and making another one come along with another chosen one. The chosen ones for each generation, they have been predetermined by fate, the leader, we don't know, but they're already picked. When the last one dies, another comes around. At first they don't know it, but then they start to have spasms at sunset. It takes seven of these, or seven sunsets, for their souls to finally start going to different dimensions. The first seven times are like heart attacks that they survive. Usually the cult finds them before they start to visit other dimensions, and captures them, taking them wherever the leader says. There they wait until the chosen one has successfully visited every necessary dimension at least twice, which is the necessary amount needed for whatever the chosen one puts there to activate properly. When they are ready, and the girl's soul has been distributed, they take the rest of the soul away, using it in a spell and the final sacrifice of the leader to make all the visited dimensions...go boom." Fred finished, handing Angel her notes sheet.  
"Let me get this straight. The Lives use an innocent girl's soul to be distributed among various hell dimensions, during which she is in an immense amount of pain, and when it is successfully done, they suck the rest of her soul out of her body and use it to destroy all dimensions, but not before she is destroyed?" Angel asked, voice thickening.  
"Yeah." Fred said softly. The entire group was in silence for a moment.  
"This has happened over three hundred and forty times, to over three hundred and forty girls?" Angel asked.  
"Not successfully." Lorne replied in a serious tone.  
"But it will be successful this time. With this girl."  
"Unless you and Spike stop the Lives and rescue the girl, yes, it will." Wesley said.  
"I might need more backup than just Spike. Gunn, Wesley, you two up for it?" Angel asked. The two nodded. "Good. Then how do we stop them?"  
"They aren't done yet. With the final distributions." Fred said, pushing her glasses up on her nose. "The final apocalypse is supposed to occur in three days. But we should go now, to be, you know. Safe, about it?" She suggested.  
"Good idea. How do we end this, though? Will the spasms stop when Grace gets out of the possession of the Lives? Or will it keep going on?" Angel asked.  
"I don't know. I know that as long as the Lives don't get her in three days and use the remainder of her soul to be sacrificed, then the world won't end. I don't know if she'll continue to be transported." Fred replied.  
"Well, we should go get her and find out." 


End file.
